Critical Asian Studies

Reaping the Harvest of Peace?

The Politics of Reconstruction during Sri Lanka's 2002 Peace Process

Abstract:

When the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) entered into a peace process in 2002, the term “peace dividend”
was often used, both in and outside the peace negotiations. The need to
reconstruct and normalize war-torn areas was identified as a shared
interest between the parties. It was believed that if ordinary people
could reap the harvest of peace through improved living conditions,
they would also support the peace process. Curiously, the link between
a peace dividend and popular support for peace was never critically
scrutinized. This article argues that far from being a “neutral” shared
interest of the two parties, reconstruction of the war-affected areas
was high-voltage politics, intimately interlinked with security and
political structures. Both the LTTE and the government wanted to
control and use reconstruction efforts to “win the hearts and minds” of
the people. While the political struggle for control over
reconstruction was fought at the elite level, grassroots people in the
war zone — the supposed beneficiaries of a peace dividend — were
engaged in their own everyday life struggles and had concerns that were
quite different from those brought up by their self-proclaimed
spokespersons. Villagers interviewed in northern Sri Lanka, for
example, had few expectations of outside assistance. Their support for
the peace process was not conditional upon visible, material benefits.
An end to violence was sufficient inducement for them. And thus, the
idea advanced by donors, diplomats, and peace negotiators that
reconstruction was needed to build support for the peace process,
proved to be more rhetoric than substance.